MP attacks 'leftie Ceremony'

Downing Street has distanced itself from comments made by the Conservative MP Aidan Burley on Twitter about the "most leftie Opening Ceremony I have ever seen." The backbencher has partially withdrawn his comments.

Live updates

Speaking to ITV Central, Aidan Burley said his tweets stemmed from watching the opening ceremony and seeing "things like the CND symbol being lit up for 20 minutes".

At that point, he says, "I started to question why this kind of left-wing politics was creeping in to the opening ceremony."

He adds that with the "constraint" of a 2,0000-year history to document, "it seems a bit strange that he [Danny Boyle] would have such a big focus on rap music...it seemed like there were some trite attempts to focus on some modern parts of our multiculturalism."

He also said: "I think it is sad that towards the end we had Shami Chakrabarti from the left-wing campaigning organisation Liberty carrying the flag."

Labour MP David Winnick has responded to comments by a Tory MP, who insisted today that he had been misunderstood after sparking a major backlash by branding the Olympic opening ceremony "leftie multicultural crap".

Mr Winnick said that a "period of silence" was needed on Aidan Burley's part. He added: "The fact of the matter is that his comments were totally inane, anti-British and at variance with the feeling of millions of people up and down the country over the success of last night's opening.

"A great number of people in Cannock, including many who voted for him, will be wishing they had a different MP."